The Process | profitablegrowth

Use Lean Best Practice, Extended DISC® Profiling, and the latest thinking in Cognitive Science to increase your Profitability.

There are many challenges to navigate in today's business environment on the road to profitability.

Key Challenges

Decision Making
Morale
Motivation
Personal Wellbeing
Teamwork
Efficiency
Collaboration and innovation
Retaining key people
Effective Communication

It is not safe to just assume that your people will meet and overcome all the challenges on their own. The businesses that actively engage all their people and plan and document the organisation’s own best practice model, will not only survive but thrive.

Covey’s Circle of Control

In today's VUCA environment, there are many reasons to be concerned.

The key mental focus needs to be on what you can “Control”. The next focus is then on areas where you could “Influence” change.

While there may be many areas where we are all “Concerned” we have no control overhow these evolve and any influence we may think we have is very limited.

SWOT

SWOT is a great way to actively engage all the people in untangling the business. Getting people to individually and collectively focus on the business Internal strengths and weaknesses gives a powerful insight in to all different perspectives within the organisation. Then turn their focus to external Threats and Opportunities. We use some research-based, creative methods to facilitate this process.

How do we best actively engage our people to develop a new more resilient organisation and drive future profitable growth?

The Two Page Profitable Growth Plan

In times of uncertainty, the wisdom of tried and tested methods holds true when searching for solutions.

The Two Page Profitable Growth Plan leverages clarity, simplicity and results in four easy steps.

Set targets against key financial indicators for this year and future years

e.g. Annual turnover, Gross Profit, Net Profit, etc.

Clarify your key business objective

Clarify the critical business challenges to achieving your targets

e.g. Market, Product, Operations, Systems & Data, Finance and People

Identify and implement actions to address your critical business challenges

How to identify your main business challenges?

The Profitable Growth Specialist's Red Zone Mapping process allows us to visualise the outputs from the SWOT analysis. Each department can create their own internal mapping process. Gradually by focussing on the areas within the department’s “control”, practical solutions to the challenges identified can be implemented, leading to the Red Zoned challenges moving to Amber and finally the Green Zone.

The Power of Visualisation

The power of visualisation is central to Best Lean Practice. Value Stream Mapping is a core element in this visualisation. Equally we would recommend the groups engaged in the process prioritise their top three challenges.

The “Power of Three” is recognised in Cognitive Science as the optimum number of issues for people to creatively focus on at any one time. If there are more than three challenges identified through the SWOT process then Mapping can be repeated until all departments and sub-divisions are in the Green Zone.

Fundamental to all this is the need to ensure that all key people are properly and fully engaged in the business in the Re-Thinking Process. To do this we apply the latest developments in Cognitive Science.

We employ cognitive models such as Future–Backwards and the Cynefin Framework and use these in conjunction with SWOT analysis. These cognitive models help ensure people are actively engaged in the process and are willing to share ideas and innovative thinking in identifying actions to address the key challenges.

Active engagement at both the individual and collective level is critical to success. Enabling all the people in the organisation to actively participate is crucial so that the agreed actions are not solely the thinking of dominant personalities but accurately reflect the views and creativity of all involved.

Extended DISC® Profiling

Extended DISC® Profiling gives a powerful insight in to how each individual will cope with the pressures of the work environment.

The Two Page Profitable Growth Plan also includes a review of the people gaps that will need to be addressed to enable the business achieve its Profitable Growth targets.

Using Extended DISC® Profiling provides insights in to the strengths and weaknesses within the current management team and can provide the basis for developing a comprehensive People Plan that will identify individual skills development and a “key person” recruitment plan.

Extended DISC® is a tool, which can be used in multiple applications, creating an effective way to get both individuals and teams to engage pro- actively to understand challenges and develop actions to move forward. Once an individual assessment has been completed multiple reports can be generated.

Individual assessments and action plans
Pair Analysis
Team Analysis
Department Analysis
Remote working analysis and plan to deal with
the challenges and improve effectiveness
Identifying skills gaps and selecting the most
effective skillsets and people to fill the roles

People Engagement Process

Engagement process to understand the company’s requirements
Selected participants are invited to complete the assessment online
Follow up with individuals or groups to provide feedback of results
Facilitate and engagement process using the information gained from the results to identify and discuss challenges, strengths and opportunities
Develop individual and team action plans

Profitable Growth Specialists